Diary of Survival
by Olamach
Summary: Robbie writes down and documents moments and finds himself as he tries to survive a world over run by creatures.
1. Chapter 1

This story is going to be a very slow progression Rade. It is told from Robbie's point of view so things are from his thoughts and such.

R&R

November 13th

I'm afraid. Then again who in their right mind wouldn't be? I'm alive though, so that's worth something, right? It's really cold too tonight. I'd say it's properly 34F out give/take a few degrees. This place - which was once a small hospital, has a generator that Beck figured out how to make work. This place is a God send because I'm quite certain we wouldn't have made it too much longer outside. This clinic also has a lot of stuff we needed, clean linens, semi clean water, food. It's also setting pretty far off the beaten path… uh Road. It's safe - for now, anyway. We're good for a while.

I'm not really sure how to begin. It's like Friday I think… It could be Monday. Who cares? I checked, it's Friday according to a pocket calendar I found awhile back. Anyway, if I use it I can start counting days the old fashion way… marking days off on a wall… something like that. If I even make it until tomorrow.

I'm writing this because I want to be remembered. I want what we are going through to be remembered, for anyone that comes after us to see that we fought to survive and so should they. Honestly, that it really neat, right? I'm trying to help future folks and survivors, yeah, like their will be any. Really I just want to talk to someone, even if it's a fictional audience. Yes, I'm surrounded by people - my friends, and honestly I grateful to still have them in my life, especially since everyone else is gone. I just cannot talk to them for some reason… So you my fictional audiences are my new best friend.

We're using the generator to heat for a few hours then we are going to shut it off to save gasoline. So, I don't really have much time really do much talking - writing. We also can't risk drawing attention to ourselves, for obvious reasons.

My name is Robert Lindsey Shapiro. Everyone calls me Robbie and don't think to much about my middle name - my parents wanted a girl. I was a high school student at Hollywood Arts in Los Angeles. I was happy - I had a semi- dysfunctional family and great friends. I haven't gotten killed yet by any Titers. Yay me, thank everything that is holy. I'm sure everyone thought I would be the first to go, with my luck and everything.

Maybe I should explain what a Titer is? I mean, it is possible that who ever is reading this lives in an alternate reality, right? Maybe in the future Titers are now friendly household pets? Extinct? Maybe… Anyway, they are not Zombies! Jade made certain we all got that through our heads very early on. Mean, mean girl… you'll meet her later. Anyway, I didn't need Jade to hit me and yell at me to see those things aren't zombies. Zombies aren't real, duh. Zombies are very slow and very dead. Titers are very fast and possibly alive. A pastor in Arizona said they are likely possessed humans, and you come that way by being bit by a demon. Really honestly, I have no idea what a Titer is but I'm certain they're really bad news.

We were in school the night everything went into the crapper. Yes, I said crapper. I'm living dangerously now. Rehearsals were running really late for one of Sikowitz's plays and Cat couldn't focus long enough to get anything done, which was making Sikowitz very angry and everyone else very annoyed. In a way she actually saved our lives. Who would have thought.

Anyway, we were all in the black box theater when it hit. All of us were getting really annoyed with Cat, even me, who has nothing but long patients for our special friend. We were completely alone, only Cat, Andre, Tori, Beck, Jade, and I. Oh yeah, Sikowitz and Sinjin. Oh yeah… I feel bad for not remembering Frank - Hollywood Arts chocolate mop janitor. He was there too.

I had been checking my pear phone for some reason when I had come across a news report about crazy people randomly killing people. No biting, no trying to eat each other, just murder. I thought it was a hoax at first.

Sikowitz wouldn't let us leave and was acting crazier then normal because this was the end of the year play and he was in some type of competition with another teacher. He was yelling at us about 'us' being his most important and trust-worthy students, and how disappointed he was in us. I mean this was around midnight! He was like in a way keeping us hostage! I guess he in a way saved our lives too. It was around two and everyone was moaning and complaining, while our teacher Sikowitz kept going and going, when Sinjin yelled out a few profanities, shutting Sikowitz up and ran up stage waving his lap top around.

I remember it was a live broadcast on some news station. The news man was very tense and very pinched faced. He was reporting the attacks in a very dry manner, very emotionless. His expression is burned into my mind still today.

We were really quiet for a while because they went to commercial. Odd, right. Mass murder and they go on commercial breaks about Burger King, Splinda, and how to grow hair in only three hours. Moving on… a loud pop from outside made us all jump. Another came and Sikowitz actually yelled gunshots and made us all hit the floor.

There are no window in the black box so we all followed Sikowitz out into the hallway even though he had told us to stay put. We ended up peering out of the closed door window leading to the asphalt café, right before the tables and closer to the empty parking lot was a body. Have you ever seen a person with a gunshot wound? I have, but back then I hadn't. It was really bad, even though the only light we had to see by was the night lamps, it was bad. It was a really clean headshot too. Think about that.

It was man, I guess. He was wearing a suit. I remember taking extra notice to how the blood was slightly flowing down hill and into drain, I was deaf. I couldn't even hear everyone freaking out around me.

Sikowitz started to yell at us to head back to the black box and for one of us to call 9-1-1 even though Tori was already trying, as well was I but I kept fumbling with it and couldn't get it out of my pocket for some reason.

Sikowitz was heading outside and towards the woman leaving us all freaking out in the hallway. Tori started yelling loudly about not being able to get into 9-1-1, which had Cat bawling even louder. Andre and Beck both were trying to comfort her and Jade was still standing by the window watching Sikowitz, I guess. I was standing still fumbling in my pocket, realizing that none of this was a hoax.

That's when Frank appeared pushing past us and hollering towards Sikowitz to get his… back inside. I remember the man locking up tightly when Sikowtiz was back inside and ushering us back into the black box theater.

By then my mind is working again and I notice a few things. First was Sinjin hadn't followed us and was still messing with his lap top. Second was Tori was still frantically trying to reach 9-1-1. Third was Sikowitz was covered in blood. I told Tori to try calling her dad and she gave me a look like I was stupid until she remembered her dad is a police officer. She really began to panic when she was unable to reach him.

Everything was crazy, everyone was freaking out and I was surprised I wasn't. Maybe I was just in shock. Maybe that's why Frank asked me to go help him find a TV.

When we found one and got it working it was simply one of those loud emergency messages. _This is not a test._ What it usually says when there has been an earthquake. How helpful, right? Only the message very slowly scrolling across a while later read:

**This is not a test. Reporting's of widespread attacks have been reported on a local, state, and national levels. Please remain in-doors and look your doors only open doors for those acting rationally.**

"Acting rationally?" I had asked anyone who was listening and not freaking out. "What could that mean?" I certainly am aware now, I wish I wasn't.

That was it. No mentions of what was really going on, no mention of zombies, aliens, lunatics, nothing. We all are aware now that they are Titers, even though that's a name we gave them. Others likely call them something entirely different. I'll share why we call them Titers later, it isn't a pretty story. I also want to point out I had no say so on the name. It wasn't me I swear. I wouldn't have ever…

Anyway back on topic we go. We all tried getting in contact with our loved ones, nothing. I'm not really sure about anyone else but I was sure my parents were likely dead. Why I was so sure of that, I'm not at all sure.

Sinjin called us all over to take a look at news websites which were up and running, including pictures that had most of us covering our eyes and dry heaving. We watched videos taken from cell phones and loaded onto you tube, those were even worse. They all showed and talked about fast moving creatures at first with skinny black bodies that attacked biting people. Then those that got bit turned violent and began killing, they attacked like feral animals and moved like them. Titers are fast, sort of like a track star. Mind you not the fastest track star, not Olympic type more like high school track star. Their bodies usually shake uncontrollably - all jerky and sporadic, horrifying. All it takes is a bit from one of the black creatures and you become a brainless killing machine. The ones who get bitten, turn into Titers. If a Titer bits someone - Titers are more likely to kill then bit, though, it is likely they will turn into a Titer as well. But it's important to remember that not everyone who is bitten my a Titer turns into a Titer. Most of the time it happens though.

Sinjin had gone to the CDC website which was a disappointment because it told us nothing. It only told us that the black creatures seemed to host the virus and transmit it to humans. Humans then go crazy and can sometimes give the virus to those they attack, if bitten by the human.

Nothing really came of that. I tried calling my parents but of course everything was busy.

"We need to think of a plan." Frank had said.

He lived about a mile away from here he told us. He also said school was a good place to hold up but had told us it was too close to way to many people and soon we would be likely be trapped inside. He told us about how he had a whole room in his place filled with things we would need, because apparently he had been preparing for the end of the world. Can't really laugh at him now.

He told us about getting guns, -he ignored my protests, other supplies, and food. He told us we could find a better place to hold up in. A place farther away from people and those things. We found a place, obviously. But there is a really long story to how we got here and we all didn't make it.

Beck is hollering about turning off the generator - warning everyone. and I wanna find a good blanket before the others take all the good ones. I'm sleepy too. I'll tell you more later for sure… I guess.

Next time my fictional audience

**- Robbie**

**R&R**


	2. Chapter 2

Another chapter is here. I'm thankful for the review I got which is why I'm updating.

R&R

November 16th

Good evening, my fictional audience. How are you? Me? Oh, thank you for asking. I feel like crap. I had a very sour two days. Calm down, nothing bad happened, all is well. I'm using Sinjin's computer. Were you aware of that?

I'm crying really hard right now, so I'm alone. I don't need Jade making fun of me, even though she cries too no matter how much she tries to deny it. I saw her. I see her. She cries when she thinks no one is looking. Anyway, I was thinking my parents and how I didn't even go looking for them. They were likely looking for me and I just gave up on them. From the beginning I wrote them off as dead. I mean, I'm a horrible awful person. Everyone else wanted to check on their loved ones but me. I hadn't, I was too chicken.

No one actually got to check on their families because it was too bad out, but they had still wanted too. I hadn't, I had already given up. All just to stay a live. I mean staying a live is great and important but losing dignity just to stay a live is like… bad. I mean I could get attacked tomorrow. Still regretting letting my family down. I even left Rex!

With the calm that has come with our shelter, and now that everything around this place has been setup to protect us from Titers, I think about my family more. Titers draw on themselves with rocks and other pointy objects, marring there flesh with odd possibly pointless marks. They are ashy pale with hollow eyes and their teeth usually grow jagged and their nails sharp and long. Imagining my mom like that is seriously killing me mentally.

Someone is pounding on my door. I got to go and wipe these weak tears away.

- Robbie

November 17th

I'm back to normal. What ever that is, anyway. I don't feel like the world's worst child today. I think talking about it helped. See, you do serve a purpose fictional audience! Thanks for listening.

Remember when I told you that this hospital is like really far off the beaten path? Well, it is. I think it was evacuated when the world ended. Not a soul was here and we ran across it by pure coincidence. We had to travel through this tiny dusty town which was crawling with Titers, we rammed through them not even bother to stop and search for food. Titers are fast but they go down easy and are very dumb. No need to take a head shot. Anyway we came upon this place after turning a pretty rural road, with about fifteen houses. There's like this body of water surrounding this institution. A lake along a side which dips down making a pretty wide river around it which disappears off into the woods surrounding. The back way through dense woods is the only way anyone could make it here. I'm almost certain this was a mental hospital, why they would let those types of people around large bodies of water is beyond me. I'm thankful it's hear though and empty. We made extra sure it was. You have to cross a bridge to get here. One of those little wooden ones that aren't very reassuring.

Beck had called it a perfect location and we all agreed and began our journey of making it completely safe. They had these vans in the back I guess used for transporting their patients, and we used a couple of those to block off the bridge. Titers can climb but they wouldn't be exactly smart enough to do that right off. As long as we be quiet it really shouldn't be a problem anyway. We only need to worry about none Titers, like those black creatures and humans.

Guns scare me. I thought I would never use one. Now, I use one all the time. Would be finished if not for them. I hate using them, there too loud, and ammunition runs out very quickly. Did I mention there loud and draw a lot of attention… that's why we use other things when a Titer wondered up here the other day. Like I said, they are fast but they go down easy. I feel cool saying that…

The hospital's evacuation must have been quick because they left behind a lot of food and medicine and stuff. I mean this is a small hospital, privately owned more then likely. The cafeteria was filled with applesauce and boxes of instant mash potatoes. There was also a few cans of canned food.

There's this smaller building closer to the waters edge, a type of office. We actually live in there for now until we can seriously clean up in the hospital and organize things. We're moving slow because it's cold and we want to relax. Hold your judgments, please. We've had a hard time. We're trying to calm our minds down and get them out of the fight/flight way of thinking. Bad idea letting our guard down? Yeah. No one really cares anymore.

I'm feeling good tonight. I'm actually ecstatic, it was my turn to get the good canned food. So I'm munching on canned peaches right now. The little things, people. I also feel good because I have a certain someone begging me for my last container of instant coffee. I feel powerful. Should I relent and allow Jade my coffee? No? Should I make her suffer for stealing my glasses and losing them? Yes, now I'm down to only a pair. If I lose these I'm going blind.

While you think that over, I guess I can tell you more of how we got here.

Frank had a plan. We left that morning. Like I said everyone wanted to go find their families and to see if they were alright. Frank had reluctantly agreed as long as people houses were along the way, which everyone's was except for Sikowitz who hadn't wanted to check on his mother. Yeah, don't ask. Though out on the road we quickly discovered stopping anyplace was going to be hard.

Frank had one of those creeper vans. The type that are usually involved in some type of kidnapping, so we all fit. Frank made us empty out Hollywood Arts cafeteria and we had plans to break into the grub truck, but outside was total mayhem and we barely had time to loud the van before a screeching man came running at us.

Frank wanted guns. So it was not really a surprise when we headed straight towards a sporting good store I can't remember the name of. It was swarming with people.

Frank made me get out of the car with him to stand in line. Me! I did not want to but the big man gave me a don't be a wimp look and I had no other choice but to join him in line. There were a few signs hung up around saying they had a limit of guns you could buy per customer.

I mean we waited for what felt like hours, which had me all jittery and stuff because those things could show up. Then we finally made it to one of the clerks - a fat bald man who gave me a look. I didn't understand why until I realized I was supposed to say something.

I looked back at Frank who stepped forward. He asked for the guns which all sounded like foreign language to me then. Seriously I was to busy thinking about how I was getting guns without a permit and without a background check. I mean the world is ending but really…

Anyway Frank bought ammo and got his on guns and stuff. The old guy was certainly not a stranger to guns and stuff. I remember I had started to seriously wonder was going with this man was a good idea. He used his credit card to pay…

The others stared at us when we returned. I would have too… As we began driving away gunshots rang out behind us. I was in the front with Frank and had looked at him then. He only kept his eyes forward and drove.

Do you see why I feel bad for not remembering Frank initially? He really saved us and we all owe him big time. I guess I hadn't actually forgotten Frank. More like I pushed him out of my mind. Now that my mind is on him again I feel like crap again.

I'm tired, I'm going to bed.

- Robbie

R&R


	3. Chapter 3

R&R

November 21st

Hello my wonderful fictional readers. It's been a very uneventful four days since our last meeting. Nothing much going on here in the hospital, oh, I gave my coffee to Jade. I had too, she threatened me! That evil girl said she would read my journal entries if I didn't. Evil…

We worked on clearing out the hospital mostly. Yes, this was a mental institution. Lots of meds left behind and restraints. It's really rank in most of the rooms though, but I think it was like that before. There are three floors and we broke up into pair taking each floor. Beck and Jade has one, Tori and Andre floor two, and Cat and I floor three. I ended up doing most of the work on our floor as you could have guessed if you have any idea who Cat is. You wouldn't anyway, of course.

Anyway we clean up and clear out the rooms and stuff. Andre and Beck head to the basement to check and see if there is a generator there. There is but it needs juice. Then we all help Jade and Beck board up the ground level windows like we had the office. We actually plan on taking the window out and simply bricking in the windows, if we can find a way to do that.

We worked on more ways to solidify our place but we hardly had a lot of material to do anything really. How much noise we could make was also limited.

I guess I will get back to our story, then.

We left the gun shop, all of us gloomy and quiet. The roads were in chaos and I guessed no one had listened to the broadcast. Traffic was thick and heavy, people were all driving like lunatics and honking and road rage was the norm. Frank drove at a pacified speed which had a lot of people moving around us giving us a very bad finger. Frank ignored all this and simply smoked his cigarettes. I couldn't breathe but I said nothing.

Grocery stores we went by were thick with people; every store was thick with people frantically buying survival gear. About ten minutes later I began to wonder why I hadn't really seen anything dangerous beside the one at Hollywood Arts.

I wonder too much. We had just hit the highway when one came running down the highway, buck naked. A woman so she had everything exposed and it looked as if she had been clawing at her stomach. The car in front of us stopped, a big truck who I guessed hadn't gotten the memo. The woman had jumped from the truck dressed in nurses' uniform and rushed towards the woman. I remember hearing her shout, "Are you, alright?" over and over again before the naked woman jumped on her. Tarring into the woman's chest with her bare hands - the Titer had actually tore one of the woman's breasts off.

Jade, who had climbed forward and was leaning over me peering out of the window had. She had whispered, "Tit terror." It was a really bad joke and I think she only made it because it was a seriously horrifying sight and people can say weird things when witnessing something like that. The name had stuck, obviously. Titter. I told you I had nothing to do with that.

Anyway we were too close to back up because of the car behind us. So Frank had to ram the truck, giving me whiplash. We barely were able to scrap by and nearly got hit by a car flying up the other lane.

"Take a seat, Girl" Frank had shouted when she fell into me.

The girl had relented reluctantly and we continued down the highway. On the other side of the highway ambulances and cops were racing back towards the way we had come. I mean all this was going on and I felt like I was watching it from above. Like an outer body experience. I'm not even sure if I've come back yet.

The roads were total chaos for a while and the only sounds were gun fire, howls, and someone quietly praying in the back of the van. I'm still unsure on who it was. Then we turned down a road and everything stopped. The roads were completely empty; the gun fire was behind us as were the howls. People were outside, mostly boarding up their homes.

Frank pulls the van right in front of a ranch style house and tells us to unload everything we had gotten from Hollywood Arts as a thick looking woman with a shotgun exited the house.

"This is my wife Cathy." Frank introduced us to an unhappy looking Cathy once we had piled everything inside of their quaint little house.

"Can I talk to you, Frank?" Cathy had gritted out all annoyed and stuff. Frank sighed dramatically and had followed his wife into the nearby kitchen leaving us alone.

"What's going on?" Tori asked as if she had just returned from a long trip. She had her phone clutched in her hand still, and her eyes were very wide and glossy. "What, why am I here?" Her voice cracked and we all simply stared at her. "I need to get home. I need to call my dad. I need to check on my mom and Trina." She collapsed on the navy blue couch holding her face.

That was like a chain reaction because Cat began bawling again, Andre began talking to himself. Beck was sort of standing in the middle of the room staring at the floor. Sikowitz was sniffing loudly and Sinjin was only moments away from joining Cat and Tori. Jade looked unbothered but the way she was chewing her lip off told a different tale. I could tell you how I looked if I had a mirror.

Frank and Cathy returned back in the room looking around, looking a little over-whelmed. They had given me a look like I was supposed to do something. What was I supposes to do?

We remained at Frank's and Cathy's for a very long time. Frank let me into his secret bunker; he even told me he trusted me. He had so much food down there along with other supplies and guns and ammunition. He left me in charge of counting things.

For days nothing really happened around Frank's and Cathy's area. A few Titters every now and again, but nothing to worry about. Not with Frank around anyway. He was amazing. A week after being there he wanted to take me out to practice handling a gun. Me! Not Beck, not Andre, not Tori, Jade's me. He told me I was the only one not in shock even though I felt like I was. He told me he would train the others later.

So after a very brief - in my opinion introduction in gun safety I learned how to shoot a gun. I was an awful shot at first because honestly I was horribly afraid. Frank use to say all the time when I would miss the mark:

"Their fast but they go down easy. You don't have to be a perfect hit, boy. Just hit."

I got better over time and soon the others came out of their funk to give it a try. Though, Sikowitz, Cat, and Sinjin refused to even touch a gun. Frank didn't force them. Beck was like a natural, seriously what isn't he good at?

Jade was surprisingly, afraid of the gun. Frank had given her one he had said had less of a kick back, which she was apparently offended by and made a big deal of complaining about. Andre was like a mix of all of us. With certain guns he was really good, while with others he was a little unstable. Tori only made it half-way through before quitting. All this gun training took place miles and miles away from the house.

I remember the very day he took us out for live action targets. I really hadn't wanted to go but I had of course.

We had gone into town. I hadn't taken very long to find what we were looking for and very soon we were lined up in a type of half-circle taking out the fast moving targets. Frank was yelling at us to breathe and stay calm. How could I stay calm when people are yelling?

All my shots were going wide, hitting shoulders and legs which simply made them fall and get back up. Slowing them down a little… I'm pretty cool. Beck was the only one who was getting off chest and head shots every time. I felt like a loser.

Speaking of our brave leader Beck he's calling a meeting, something about food.

- Robbie

R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Updating and adding a few chapters at once I hope you enjoy

PR

December 3rd

It's been awhile. I'm very sorry. It's actually a very warm winter day today, I think it's like 50F. The Titters are more active in warm weather, so it's a blessing and a curse. It's still really cold at nights though, so yeah.

We got the generator down in basement of the hospital working. Well, Beck did. He is seriously what has this group from vanishing into oblivion. There had been some fuel tanks in the basement and we had brought a few with us from Frank's supply in his bunker. We also got fuel from abandoned cars we had passed on our way here. We're good for a while.

We're making plans to go looking for woodstoves for generators wouldn't have to be used so much. I mean were in Sothern Oregon, someone has to have a woodstove. We're going to try searching the houses near here first. I mean this town we are in is fairly small and rural, which is why we like it. There is only two convenience gas stations that we are aware of. One is nearer to the city, while the other is actually only a few miles from here. We are going to get more fuel from those as well.

I'm our plan maker, so I have to get this right. If anything goes wrong it's going to be my fought. My plan is we are going to hit the houses leading up here. If there empty anyway. We're going to look for thing that can hold gas and whatever else we can get our hands on, then we can hit up the gas station nearby. Sounds easy, right? Then why am I so nervous?

Oh Town is swarming with Titers. I don't wanna get torn apart by one of those monsters, I don't want anyone to get hurt. I want everything to go back to normal. I wish for solar panels and a cattle farm.

- Robbie

December 4th

Mission Complete - tomorrow hopefully. We had to push it back a day because of rain.

We found some gas can in the basement, five of them. They aren't very big so we aren't really aren't expecting to get to much fuel this time. We are taking old reliable aka Frank's van even though we have a pretty new truck and a another vehicle. Who could resist the chance of getting a brand new car free of charge? Me, but I ignored my conscious.

The van can run on fumes so gas isn't really an issue for it. It burned gas like a snail moves. No idea why. I changed our plan and now we're going to hit the gas first thing tomorrow morning.

I'm going to finish my story now.

I think we were with Cathy and Frank for maybe four months? Long enough for most of our supplies to diminish to almost nothing. We had to make another run, well our first run. Search houses and nearby stores, Frank said it would be very simple. That really should have been my sign right there.

I wasn't ready. Frank made me leader, he had Andre and Cathy, I had Beck and Jade. I will never understand the confidence that man had in me. I really wish he hadn't. Beck, Jade, and I were heading east while they headed West. We were checking out houses, which was supposed to be a lot easier then heading into a crowded city.

It was at first. We had taken Cathy's truck and had done as Frank had told us. Honk the horn to make certain no one was home. Call out a warning, and head inside. That worked well for the first house, cleaned it out. Wasn't much left by a few rolls of tissues and a stale unopened box of Chex.

God Can I really tell the rest of this story? I've typed and deleted it multiple times and I just can't I'm such a useless person. Frank gets killed along with Sikowitz and Sinjin, and it's all my fault. Cathy - who survives, tells me that as we make our get away from the house which is being swarmed by Titers. It was odd, how out of thin air so many appeared.

I'm making excuses. Anyway, I saw my first black creature on that awful day. Came face to face with it because of my carelessness. It was a horrifying experience having those charred hands on me, those black soulless eyes locked on me, that low hiss that made it's body tremble. It was going to bit me if it weren't for Frank.

Thank you, Frank.

- Robbie

December 5th

Why am I still alive?

Everything went by well at first. I mean Beck, Jade, Andre, and I are like well oiled machines. We get things done. When we're getting along anyway. We got our gas cans, and we each got a rifle and a hand gun and load into the van. We leave Tori and Cat behind, trusting Tori to keep everything in order. She's a well enough shot even though she hates to shoot.

It's really early, because we like to do stuff early. Doing things at night is stupid anyway. We ate a breakfast of jelly spread of canned bread, curtsey of Tori. Then we head on down to the good old gas station. No cars littered our path, everything was completely bare actually. That type of stuff make me nervous. Having it easy always means something is heading our way.

I was driving and I stopped a stop sign which got me yelled at by Jade.

"Who in the hell else in on the road, Shapiro?"

Yes, she's nice. "I like to play safe ." I tell her flatly.

"We are aware."

I ignore her and continue forward towards the gas station. There aren't really any Titers around and I guess that's because they're maybe on the other side of town. There are two of them moving around in front of our destination. Seriously, when no one is around they do resemble zombies - shuffling about with no clear direction, no purpose.

"We have to take care of those quietly." Beck said leaning forward. He looks at me and pats my shoulder. "You should pull up to a pump." I nod even though I was already aware of that.

The Titers hear the car and come running as expected. I simply run them over and that's it for them. I pull up to a pump and we get out and head towards the building in our normal formation. Beck in the lead facing forward, Jade and Andre on either side of him watching his sides, me brining up the rear watching what's behind us.

Beck had slowly opened the glass door, hesitating before motioning me to go inside. I walked around checking the back and the foul smelling freezer before coming back and giving my everything is clear. Andre remained outside while Beck, Jade, and I used the left over plastic bags to clear the very shocking amount of food left on shelves.

Soda, chips, Candy, Cat loved it even Jade had let out random sound of happiness especially with all the coffee we found. We cleared out as much as we could get. We had packed up things first and I began taking things out to the van and Andre had joined the others inside, helping with the loading up. When I realized we would likely need to unlock the gas pumps no matter how old this place looked. They were actually pretty easy to find, just behind the counter. I filled up our gas cans and the tank of the van, happily.

I heard a car coming just as I finished. My heat began beating a thousand time a minute and in seconds the car appeared stopping near by. My gun was at my hip and my rifle in the car. I mean could I even shoot a living' person? It was a man and a younger boy maybe fifteen in a smaller pickup truck.

The man got out and I guessed he was the boy's dad. He looked a lot like my dad, tall slim wearing glasses with a residing hairline. It was odd, and actually distracted me a lot. I had subconscious rested my hand on the gun on my hip though.

"Hey son, you need any help?" He had asked in a kind way.

I had shook my head once and said, "I'm good. What about you?" His kind voice and his resemblance to my dad diffidently had my guard lowering.

He replied: "That's my son in there he's twelve. I also have a wife and baby back at home." He looked sort of sheepish. "Do you have any food? My wife and children needs food and we need ammunition. Ammunition is as important as food now a days."

I briefly glanced towards the gas station. They had to have noticed our visitor by now. "There's a lot of baby food in there." I said, which was true. We hadn't grabbed any of that type of stuff. "There's some food left in there as well." We weren't going to take everything either. "I could give you some of this stuff I got." He looked so happy about the news, I felt like a good person.

I went to the van's back and started filling a empty bag with stuff, I could still see him from how I had pulled in. He asked if he could go in and shop. I told him to wait until we left. I hand him two bags and he grins gratefully at me before backing back towards his vehicle.

I had looked away only for a second about to call the others out when the boy headed towards me, a gun leveled right at my face. He looked a lot older then twelve but not really that old. I remember freezing and lowering my hand away from my gun as he approached.

He looked unstable and he was shaking. "We need more." He had said. " I don't want to hurt you but my mom and little brother need this. My dad is to nice but I can do what needs to be I'm reall -"

His words were cut off by Beck loudly cocking his gun. " Drop your weapon!"Beck called out very sharply as he and the others exited the building. Andre and Jade had their guns trained on the horrified looking father.

I'm pretty sure the boy had peed himself, but he wouldn't lower his gun from my face. He looked back and forth between me and Beck, wide eyed.

"I said drop your weapon!"

"Beck," I remember saying calmly. I wanted this to end well, not badly. Just let them have the food." We had enough, and I didn't believe this was worth it. I believed this man and his son when they say they had other members of their family.

Beck had answered me back sharply, That had seriously made me angry. "They need to go find their own food rather then try stealing from others."

"It's not worth it." I remember saying desperately. "It's only food."

"Food is everything now, Robbie." Beck had been walking steadily forward the whole time he was taking and was only feet away now. "Drop it"

"Let them get the freakin food!" I yelled again. That's when the intense angry staring match between us began.

My friend's jaw clenched and his gun lowered. â€œFine,â€ he took his eyes off me. "Take our food."

The boy did motioning his father forward to unload the bags I had loaded into the car. I stayed calm and watched them, the father kept giving me apologetic looks. I wasn't going to shoot anyone over a candy bar, ever. When they had emptied out our van they slowly began backing up to their car, both walking backwards. Near their car I spotted it, a Titer. Moving like a crazed dog towards them howling like the monster they are. The boy turned and shot, hitting his father square in the chest. The Titer jumped on him. I was too slow at upholstering my weapon, but took care of the fairly easily.

All was quiet after that even though our gunfire would likely be a dinner bell in minutes. We had to leave then, if we wanted to survive. We all jumped into van and took off as fast as I could.

An awful day, indeed. Not to mention Beck was beyond angry at me and said a few things I'm sure he hadn't meant. The others also seemed made at me, especially Jade who had lost her coffee. Cat was the only one not angry at me and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the bag of candy bars that hadn't been taken.

I told everyone that the food would be there tomorrow, that only made Tori and Andre happy. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do fictional audience. Is Jade right and I'm too soft? Should I have listened to Beck because he's our leader? I tried to do right, but everything turned out bad anyway.

How scared that boy looked is burned into my brain. I mean what's going to happen to the mother and the baby? Will they wait for them to return? If I could help, I have no way of finding them. I just realized we left that man. He could have been alive. We hadn't even checked

PR


	5. Chapter 5

PR

December 10th

I skipped talking about Thanksgiving, if you noticed. We have a lot to be thankful for I guess. Being alive, being with friends, having shelter, having food. We have a lot more then most.

It's really rainy and cold today. Cat claimed that it was snowing but I didn't really see it. I've been cooped up all day - all week with nothing to do but think. Under the circumstances, that isn't a good thing. We've moved into the hospital now, we each have our own rooms, mostly on the first floor since the heat works only on this floor.

Beck and Jade have the room next to mine, though technically Jade's room is across the hall besides Cat's. I'm not telling you that because I hear them having intercourse, I don't. If I did I would move up a floor. I can't handle that. Anyway, they share a room, I felt like giving you that information.

Anyway, I spent yesterday organizing stuff. I cleaned the basement and organized the gas into safe areas and counted and recounted our food supplies. Not looking good, I ate about five of Cat's candy bars, secretly. She thinks this place is haunted now. I thought it was funny until my stomach started doing all kinds of bad stuff. I spent a lot of time on the toilet.

I'm lazily today.

- Robbie

December 18th

I haven't written in a while because I didn't want to bore you with all the nothingness that was going on. So I'm writing again because, you guessed. Something happened.

I have a hole in my leg, Cat and Tori are gushing over me. I'm in a good place, not really. How did I get a hole in my leg? Well, it's a long story. Well, I'm doped up on pain medication and I can't walk, so I'm have a lot of time.

We returned to the gas station the other day, to try to pick up the food we had left behind. Easy right, because what are the chances of running to more crazy people? Very large chance actually.

Jade and I were the only ones who went out this time. We felt it wouldn't really be more then a two man job, so we got in the van and headed down. We hadn't talked much during quick drive back into town, we never do - Jade and I. She can't tolerate me though we've all been through a lot together, which is fine.

Gun shots rang out as soon as we were loading everything into the van.

"What in the hell?" Jade cursed loudly. "Hurry up, Robbie."

"You really don't have to tell me that." I mumbled back, my attention gone to about five Titers shuffling towards us. "Behind you, Jade." Titers run really stiff like, with their arms stretched out like Frankenstein.

My reaction was a little bit behind even though I had seen them coming. I dropped two of them and Jade got three. We quickly loaded the last of the things and jumped into the van and pulled out of there. We were about a block away when a swat van pulled in front of us, halting in the middle of the road causing me to have to slam on brakes. In the review mirror I could make out two more vehicles line up behind us.

My attention returned to what was ahead of us as the van doors slid open and three hooligans got out. They had there guns pointed at us as a fairly large man got out of the vans front.

"Hands up!" The bald man had shouted at us, and Jade and I both raised our hands. "Now, slowly remove turn off the car and place it's keys on top of dash." I did as told. Once I had did that two of the hooligans moved forward one heading towards Jade's side and one towards mine opening our doors open and forcing us out of the van and on the ground in front of it.

I remember giving Jade a lot of looks because I wasn't really sure if she would try something. She's a little rash at times. Once on the ground their guns still trained on us the head hooligan order a few of us men to check out what we had in the van. Gun fire had also began as they took down all the Titers who were making there way towards us.

The head hooligan - I'm going to call him that because I never really got his name, was very pleased with what we had. He even exchanged a high five with one of his fellow hooligans.

"Now," he had began talking slowly walking around us. "What else is it you kids got?" He came to a stop along side of Jade actually touching her hair. She looked livid, but remained still. "You're clean, that must mean you have working water. Tell us were that is, maybe we can trade?" That got a laugh from a few of his fellow colleagues.

"Can you stop touching her!" I remember yelling. I mean he was still touching Jade, oddly petting her hair. It was making my stomach churn and I snapped. I hated that he was touching her like that and I didn't like how he was looking at her.

The man actually laughed at me and took a fist full of her hair yanking her head back roughly. I made a move to get up and was promptly hit in the gut by the butt of a gun, I crumbled to the ground grasping for air and holding my stomach. "Calm down glasses, I want hurt your girlfriend. No, I want hurt her at all." As you would imagine that was extremely creepily said.

I tried to act tough and get my breathing under control. Like, I think he cracked one of my ribs.

"Now pretty eyes, tell me how do you get water?" He had asked still holding Jade's head backwards, he was uncomfortably close to her face. When Jade only glared at him he gave her a shake. "Tell me girl!" Head hooligan shouted and Jade literally spit a glob of mucus in his face. "Fucking bitch!" Baldy exclaimed letting go of her and backing away wiping spit from his face.

He then approached a smirking Jade again rising his hand like he was going to hit her, when one of his shooting hooligans shouted out. "It's getting heavy out here boss, too many of them are coming."

"Fuck," head hooligan cursed. "Put them in the fucking van. We'll get the answer out of them later."

So, we were loading into the van and driven to some warehouse a few miles away. Jade and I were locked in loading docks and tied up while the hooligans went and did their hooligan stuff. Once alone we instantly started trying to get our hand out of our rope restraints.

"Can you bite my restraints off Jade?" I asked after looking around and not finding anything that could cut it. Happy the hooligans were way to dumb to do this right. They hadn't tied our feet and we were freely placed in the middle of the room.

"How about you bite mine?" Jade questioned. "Why do I have to break my teeth? This is all your fault."

"How is this my fault!" I asked truly bewildered. I had began to say something else when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I thought I had seen something move in the blacked high corners of the warehouse. Like a skinny black body crawling over the ceiling, a skinny black body I had only seen once before.

My whole body stilled and my blood ran cold. "Jade," I whispered quietly.

"I'm not going to d-"

I had cut her off. "I think there's a demon in here."

Now, Jade hardly believes that they are truly demons but the girl gets my point and I can feel tugs at restrained hands. Soon my wrists were free and I was working on hers.

"What in the hell?" One of the hooligans shouts returning into the room seeing us free and he trains his gun on us. "Get your fucking hands up!" He must be new because he looks less hooligany and afraid. "They're loose back here!" He yelled behind him. "I need back up."

Jade and I were hardly worried about the nervous hooligan in training, but was focused on the creature above his head. He must have noticed our attentions weren't on him because he looked up, pointing his pistol and fired. It missed of course as the creature landed on him and began mulling him.

It was a disturbing sight, but I remember tearing my eyes away from the awful sight and pulling Jade with me further back into the warehouse, hoping shadows would be enough to hid us. The others appeared and began shooting their guns at the creature, but it was too fast. It was already shimmering up the warehouse walls and darting around. The men's shots were going wide and missing their mark completely. They were only wasting ammo. I don't remember really doing it but I moved in front of Jade in an attempt at using my body as a shield to protect for stray ill-aimed bullets. That's when I felt agony shoot through my leg, but I held firm not removing my body from over Jade.

I had caught her eye and tried to ignore the horrible unrelenting pain coming from my leg. I had to tell her how I planned on us getting out of here. I told her that as soon as the idiots stopped shooting, because they would be getting mulled, that we would make for the open door. Honestly there may have been more to my plan but I'm a little out of it right now so bare with me.

She was looking at me funny, all wide eyed and frightened looking, so I repeated my plan again and that was it. I made it outside by pure will power, after that I dropped like a rock. Blood lose and all that. I feel bad that I gave out and had Jade take care of us both making it out.

But by some miracle I woke up a few hours ago here at the hospital. Jade hadn't left me to get feasted on my by a demon. She had saved me! I haven't really gotten the full story on what happened after I fainted, Jade hasn't come to see me yet. I guess she'll tell me,

I'm getting the evil eyes from Tori. She wants me to get off and take a rest. Girls,

- Robbie

PR


	6. Chapter 6

PR

December 20th

I'm bored since I've been banished to my room and can't even take a walk outside. My wound didn't get infected and was a pretty clean shot, no surgery besides Tori's messy stitches were necessary. I hope everyday we come across a real doctor. One that is certified and doesn't want to kill me for no reason.

Since our search and gather party is one man down, Tori was given the role of heading out with the group and taking over my watch times. She came back complaining about having to siphon gas in the afternoon, poor Tori. Ha! Poor me, I had to lock Cat out of here. That girl can talk.

I've had a lot of time to think today. Mostly about how the rest of the world is fairing, and how much I miss cheesy pizza. I miss clean underwear, I mean really clean and not hand washed. I miss movies, even though we have a lot of DVDs lying around that we use when allow power to be on, but I wanna watch something new. I miss my guitar and writing songs.

I think about what happened to the government and armies and stuff. I wonder sometimes if there is like this really safe location that only rich people and world leaders could get into. I wondered so much I dusted off the old battery powered radio and listened to the old crazy preacher from Arizona. You remember the one I talked about earlier, that claimed that this was all the workings of evil.

The old loon is still alive. Hahaha, I'm happy in a weird way. He claims that he is taking is broadcast on the road now, and that he's searching for some guy he had a vision about that could end all this. Seriously, the old man is the best entertainment I got. He has this really low voice that reminded me of the father lion of the Lion King, and this really thick Texan accent. He's really cool.

Oh, yeah. I tried my first beer today - living dangerously and all that. I mean we have a lot of that crap from Frank's place the gas station and other places we've been to. It tasted awful.

- Robbie

December 21st

Being a bed rest gives me a lot of time to come up with plans and stuff. So I have made lists and I've checked them twice, I'm hilarious right?

Here's my list of what our plans should be for the future:

Woodstoves, we need woodstoves. Winter has just begun and using up fuel like this isn't the best of ideas. So, we really need to get to looking for some.

I have this idea about building a fence around here. Maybe a moat? Seriously the idea is just that. I have to plan it more.

Making a garden is a good idea and there a nursery a few miles from here.

Finding a way for us to communicate with each other when we aren't around each other.

I'm going to have to run all this by Beck of course. He's the leader, Whatever, Cat's screaming because it's snowing. Bless her, she has no idea that's actually bad news for us. Sweet, sweet, oblivious Cat.

I'm going to think of more ideas of how we can survive.

Adios

- Robbie

December 23rd

Took a lot of begging, but I'm free. I have a limp and my leg still hurts but I'm a fast healer. Tori said so. So, I was allowed to go out with the group today. Yay,

It had snowed all of the 21st and part of the 22nd but then it all stopped and the great and wonderful sun came out. It's like 50F today.

The road the hospital is on is shaped like an L, an L with hook near the top. The bridge in on that hook at the top and the bottom of the L is the end of the road. It's called Church Road. There's a country store at the end of the road to your left and to the right by a stop sign is the gas station that causes all the issues. My plan was to clear out all the houses down the body of the L. There are also small little one way in roads splintering off the L, about three of them. Each has three houses each, while there are fifteen houses along Church Road.

We began together at first and started with the houses closes to the country store. We use old reliable because of space and the fact that he's reliable. Also for an old clunker he's like a kitten, and silence is key around here. It's weird because we take extra detail getting ready for this. We get out Franks old vests, layer up to try to protect from bits and stuff.

I'm taking advice from Frank and wearing cargo pants with deep pockets for ammo, I strap a haunting blade to my hip and leg. We bring rations and water like were going to be gone for days and a first-aid kit.

At the first house we go to, we make a big deal to announce our presence, and that we are coming in. None of us wants to get hit by a flying bullet. We honk the horn over and over again, hoping it wouldn't bring to much attention to us. Beck and Jade check the windows to see if anything is moving around inside, while me and Andre check out the back. There's a shed back there but it's locked and we both agree to try to find a key.

The walls are covered in photos of the family, a couple and a teenaged girl, apparently. The cabinets and pantry are filled with food still, so they hadn't run away. No one checked the freezer and fridge because well, nothing would be good in there anyway.

Andre finds a key that belongs to the outdoor shed and we find a bag of concrete and outdoor tools. We took it all.

House two had movement inside and as soon as I pressed my face to the window a Titer through it's body against the glass of the bay window. The frame cracked but held as it began clawing at the window. I hollered at the others about my find. It was an old woman wearing a house coat.

I stood by the window distracting it while Beck was able to sneak inside and take care of it with a hard butt in the head. There was a suicide in one of the bathrooms, a man - we took his pistol. The house had a very rancid smell, no food but a lot of cosmetic type of goodies. With three girls in our group hygiene is a must.

Third house was empty of Titers and bodies. They had a lot of useful stuff in the garage and gigantic amount of food inside. By the time we finished with those three houses alone we had about 80 canned goods, lots of good unopened pasta noodles and like fifteen bottles of ketchup, which made Andre very happy. They also had a few packs of water, which is great to have water we won't have to boil. We found nails and plywood which should come in handy very soon.

Found a lot of toilet tissue, we all gushed over that for a while. We got more linens and blankets, DVDs, books, and medication like Tylenol and Advil. Rubbing alcohol, bandages, disinfected, stuff that Tori would be happy about. Her being a self-appointed doctor and everything. I have no facial hair to shave but Andre and Beck were happy about finding razors.

Wonderful day, with no wasted ammo and every one is safe.

- Robbie

December 24th

Beck is awesome, he got a deer. Now I have to go help him clean it and stuff. Be back later. There's a reason Beck is the leader, I guess.

December 24th (2)

We turned the tiny shed out behind the hospital into, I think it's called a smoke house? This is Beck's level of expertise, I'm only a Jewish nerd from Los Angeles I'm ignorant to this type of stuff. We all cleared it out, even Cat who usually stays inside came out to help. I guess real food can get anyone moving.

We used some wire to string up the meat. We cut the meat up into little tiny pieces to dry quicker, seriously this is Beck's thing. Maybe I'll get him to explain what we actually did, All I really can tell you is that we're having real meat for Christmas.

Anyway, Cat gave me a request today for when we went out, and it wasn't for candy. Can you believe that? It was for seeds and potting soil, the girl wants to make an in-door garden. I wasn't very sure I heard her right and I asked her to repeat, which had her acting all sour and stuff. Cat is very sensitive.

Anyway we cleared a few more houses and I got Cat her stuff from the nursery and people's houses. Not much to really tell about that. No real big issues, no problems.

It's Christmas Eve.

- Robbie

PR


	7. Chapter 7

PR

December 25th

Merry Christmas, my fictional audience. We all got each other socks, clean socks. Jade and Beck kissed under Cat's homemade mistletoe. Cat is truly something special. I can't believe the girl is actually starting to get under my skin, stir my feathers, annoy me.

If she reads this she would cry for days. Anyway, we had a great Christmas dinner of meat and canned vegetables. I haven't been this full in months.

- Robbie

December 26th

This world changes people.

We have new roomies and Beck isn't happy. I don't really understand why, I'm the one who had to kill someone. Cat's happy though, she has more folks to talk too now.

It all began late last night/early this morning and we were all recovering from eating so much. I was keeping watch from the hospitals front office window, when I saw something moving around outside. It was dark and I couldn't really see anything so I snapped the light attached to the gun to see if there were any Titers. Nope, it was Cathy - alive. We had gone our separate ways when we entered Oregon, the lady wanted to get away from us - she was originally from here and told us about this little town. The woman was waving her arms up and yelling something sounding like, "Don't, I'm alive! It's me."

I was so happy seeing the woman I had tripped on my own feet running downstairs, I remember sprinting down stairs by passing Beck and yelling about it being Cathy. Yeah, thinking back on it I sort of get why he was so upset about that. The woman met me there, I didn't go all the way out and instead only went through the metal door watching the woman through the glass doors. She told me about how she had found daughter and her family and she got annoyed at me real quick for not letting her in say that they were hungry, cold, and had traveled a long way to get here. When she had seen Frank's van parked in the yard she was a thousand percent certain it was us.

The woman was crying and looked so dirty and skinny that I let her and her daughter, her daughter's husband, and their teenaged daughter in after only a few seconds. Her daughter was bit and not really doing very well, so I let them into the closest room letting her lay down. I called Tori who began looking over the woman, telling me that Beck isn't happy. Yeah well, This is Cathy and we all owe Frank and Cathy big time.

I told cat, who was gushing and crying over Cathy, who she has a wonderful relationship with, to bring them something to eat while they all kept thanking me over and over again, crying and stuff. Cathy actually hugged me, though I'm pretty sure the woman still hates me for being the idiot boy who got her husband killed. He had Cathy's shot gun, which he gave to me without even having to ask.

They are bone thin, sickly thin. Cat brought them water and was nice enough to ask Beck to turn on the generator for she could cook the chicken broth. Tori carefully watched them eat, making sure they didn't eat to fast. Tori's been reading a lot of medical books, so she's totally an expert.

Like I said the mom had a bit and was closely watched by me, and Beck and Jade had entered the room both giving me murderous glares. They all had blisters and stuff, which Tori worked on. Tori kept nagging about not feeding them too much because they would throw it back up.

Jack, the husband, told us about the folks that had ran from. Some hooligans who had taken over a safe two some miles away from this town. They are apparently a group of men taking camp at a public High school, a bunch of mean men. We are told that they were forced to work to stay in a safe area and that the guys there are huge nasty perverts who tried to rape his daughter and wife. Cathy had actually been 'arrested' there because, well, the whole world she be aware of the fact that Cathy takes no mess.

They left and came here unseen according to them. I'm sort of mad about that, because they hadn't left unseen and had led the hooligans right to us! Well, I left the room deciding to give them time to rest and we weren't even in the hallway seconds before Beck began lecturing me.

"What in the hell were you thinking, Robbie?" He had yelled at me like I'm his kid.

"I was _thinking_, Cathy needs our help." I mean had he really forgotten how much we owed that family?

"This could be a trick!" His tanned face actually turned red with anger. "We're all in danger now because of you! How can you be this stupid?"

See, that hurt a little. Looking around at the faces of Cat, Tori, and Jade made it hurt a lot more. They agreed with him. I couldn't believe how they all had turned into jerks. Then Andre came running down stairs.

"Three men are heading up here, man!" He exclaimed breathlessly. "Armed men."

Cathy poked his head outside and I waved her, but of course I can't tell an old lady what to do, so when we all broke up, Tori and Cat vanishing into a downstairs room while Beck, Jade, Andre, and I dashed upstairs she followed us into the office to the window. We all got low and I peered down at the men as they came to a stop by the hospital's door. They are fairly large men, and they were indeed armed. They had hand guns and were looking all around scanning around them.

"Those are those evil bastards." Cathy had whispered, almost hissed.

They began banging on the hospital door. I leaned backwards catching everyone's gaze and we all silently thought, but Beck motioned for me to speak to them. I thought this would be his job, I slowly raised the window up a few inches, quietly. Beck handed me his gun and I got into firing position, hiding behind the frame. Jade got to the other window in the room, while Andre and Beck vanished out of the room to other windows. Cathy stayed with me, crouching low for an old woman. I waited until I thought they all would be ready before calling out,

"What?" Clever right? He quit his banging though, and looked up looking for my location, likely.

"Who's there?" This guy didn't really look like a hooligan and actually looked a lot like Lane - who was a consular at Hollywood Arts, clean, unthreatening, and smart. He had a pistol on his hip which he luckily didn't go for, but his hand hovered over it. The other two men actually pointed the gun awfully close to my location.

"I'm Robbie. Who are you?"

"I'm Jacob Shayer, a citizen of Parkland west of here. We followed some folks and we would like to set up something with you. You have a real impressive get-up here, Robbie." He was so insincere it made me cringe a little.

"Thank you. But I don't think we're going to be able to set up any type of relationship, especially not today." I was happy my voice wasn't failing me.

"How many people are here?"

"Twenty-five as of now." Nothing wrong with being a fibber now a-days.

"I see," his tone certainly put me on edge.

"Yes," I replied dryly.

There was this long moment of silence which made me more on edge then I already was. "Can't we have this conversation face to face? Maybe I could talk to someone older? You sound quite young, Robbie."

I swallowed, "This conversation won't be happening face to face, Mr. Shayer. I've already told you that no relationships can be formed at this time. Now, I'm kindly asking you to leave." I'm seriously impressed by my own show.

I could see them all share a look, for a whole minute and a half, and let me tell you I was sweating so bad. I had also been silently praying they would just leave.

"Alright Robbie, I guess trying to have this type of conversation at this hour isn't exactly proper. We could set up some type of meeting, possible around noon tomorrow, near those transport vans blocking your bridge? We could discuss trade and forming some type of alliance?" He nodded at the other two guys.

I frowned wondering what I was suppose to say, a moment later Beck appeared in the open doorway crouching low to the ground. I could barely make out his sharp nod.

"Sounds good to me." I call out to the guys below.

"Then it's a plan, young man. We'll look around for things we can spare for trade."

"We'll do that as well. Let's meet at noon tomorrow then."

"Sorry to come barging in like this, see you tomorrow." He gave a nod in a general direction and he and the guys wondered off back towards the bridge.

Regrouping downstairs, we all settled down in the cafeteria to talk about what we were going to do at noon. Cathy's whole family looked absolutely horrified, as well as Cat. Tori was putting on this brave face but I could tell she was spooked by Jack's story.

The loud pop of gun fire had us all ducking to the floors, and a window in another room could be heard shattering. I remember Beck telling everyone to stay low and me moving awkwardly in this low shuffle to the rec-room beside the cafeteria, because the cafeteria doesn't have windows. Beck and Andre thundered behind me heading to different locations.

All the rec-room windows face towards the back of the house and I remember pulling the boards off the window and crawling out of it hitting the concrete area below pretty hard. Yeah, there is a thin line between bravery and stupidity. Judge me all you want. It was snowing outside like a winter wonder land, but who cares? I landed on my leg wrong. Remember, the leg with the gun shot wound? Anyway that caused a whole new level of pain for me as I dragged myself to the corner of the building and peeked around it.

I saw two of the hooligans crouching some yards away near one of the trucks. You see it's dark and they're not that far away but far enough away that when I brought my weapon up and aimed, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to hit anything. But I did. I shot only three times and two bullets, maybe all three hit their intended target. I'm not really sure how I should feel. Humans go down pretty easy too,

Beck and Andre must have witnessed it all go down because they came running out of the hospital doors as I came hobbling over to the guys I had taken down. Andre was shouting something about he could see a car's taillights moving away from the bridge. I guess I hadn't gotten Mr. Shayer.

Should I be relieved? Scared? I dunno yet,

One man was clearly dead but the other one was still moaning and blood was seeping out of him quick, coating the light bit of snow fall on the ground red. We watched that man die, we made no attempts to help him and only watched him bleed out on the cold hard ground alone.

I,

They come back sometimes, the folks killed. Not all the time, sometimes they do though. I guess they are like zombies. Beck said he was going to light a fire and burn the bodies just in case. I went right away to my room, leaving the gun that had ended those guys lives in the yard.

No one came to bother me all day. That I was thankful for, but honestly I wished someone would. At least then I wouldn't have been wallowing in self-pity and hatred. Though I did get a visitor a few hours ago, an unlikely one.

Simply bursting into my room because that's her style, Ms. Jade West gave me one of her famous glares. I sat up and stood from my bed.

"Any reason you've been stuck up in this room all day?" She was holding my forgotten gun very carelessly and dangerously.

"Shouldn't you be holding that better?" I asked her nervously. She rolled her eyes and sets the weapon carefully down on the table in the room.

I sort of avoided looking at her, hoping she would get the hint and not talk to me about this. I'm sure the hint is understood but not cared about.

"God, you act like you've never shot anyone before."

She crosses her arms over her chest and gives me this concentrated glare that makes me feel very small. "I haven't, not anyone alive."

"What's the big difference?" She asked and I stared at her in disbelief.

"There's a big, Jade!" I couldn't believe that had come out of her mouth.

She rolled her eyes again and actually took a few steps towards me before coming to a stop, as if she changed her mind. I wished she hadn't. "I mean you shot them to protect us and yourself right? That's why you shoot all those things, demons as you call them." She looks absolutely annoyed at having to talk to me, but why was she? "It's like uh, self-defense. You sort of saved our skins back there."

I don't really say anything, which seemed to make her even more annoyed. "Would you do it over, Shapiro? Would you have let those idiots hurt us, Cat?"

No. I realized, I would shoot them again if they were threatening my friends. I would do it in a heartbeat.

I remember grinning at her, realizing Jade had actually made me feel better. "Thank you, Jade." I wag my eyebrows at her and quickly closed the gap between us embracing her tightly. Her body went completely stiff. "You are my friend after all." I'm such a dork. Anyway she angrily pushed away from me but it wasn't as rough as it could have been.

"Don't ever call me your friend again." She had dusted imaginary dust from her, not really looking at me right in the eye. I only smiled as she looked at me briefly before turning on her heels and stomping from the room.

My smile faded when she left and I felt empty. That's when I started writing this hoping to get most of it complete before Beck turned the generator off. I guess I did.

PR


End file.
